Strategy starts by stepping back

I tend to work on various projects at the same time and getting organized about how I create for those endeavors has been a process. In the nonprofit world, resources are usually at such a premium that a near frantic pace ensues.

Whether as an entrepreneur, a nonprofit, a small business owner, or an employee in a larger company, the tendency can be to feel like we don't have enough time to stop, analyze & strategize.

We have to act, and now! But maybe we should rethink that........

Whether taking a walk, stopping to read something for leisure, meditating, or setting certain schedules for tasks that help anchor our day, there are various habits & rituals that can help us back away for a moment, only to come back to our work with fresh eyes and renewed energy.

What habits and rituals help you decompress?

Hit the button below to Get In Touch or just reply to this email, I'd love to hear what you do to step back.

Habits and rituals that help refresh the mind are hugely valuable because they help us do better work in smaller amounts of time. Have you ever felt like you HAD to get something done, then basically tied yourself to the laptop until it was completed (even though you were creating way less potently and the flow really wasn't there)?

I sure have! But I'm trying to do it less and less. I've been trying to convince myself that it's OK, even better, to stop for a minute or 15, then jump back in.

And it's true. Creative potency up, time spent down.

This allows us the space to slow down long enough to have a plan. And here's the thing... the plan can change. In fact, it has to if it's going to work.

But having a plan is about how our different projects function (whether in one company or various companies), how much time they require, how we're going about implementing them, and most importantly, how having new data about what we've done can help us improve it.

Let's be skeptical of anyone who says something can't be done better.

The ripple effect is: Step back for mind breaks -> Create more in less time -> Use saved time to strategize more effectively.

I suspect that strategy starts by stepping back.

Let's stay in touch

Hey, friends. You may have noticed that your emails often get categorized as either part of your primary inbox or as a promotion. Since I use Mailchimp to send out my newsletter, you are probably seeing my emails in your Promotions tab. The thing is, I'm not Groupon, an airline, a brick & mortar business offering a discount, or any other kind of typical promotional retailer.

While I do offer services & have art for sale, my newsletter has a lot more to do with unpacking ideas & questions that you might find value thinking about. As such, I'd love to make sure you get my emails, and there are two ways to make sure my emails show up in your primary tab:

1. You can add evanlaruffa@gmail.com to your contacts list, or
2. In Gmail, you can drag any one of my messages to the Primary inbox. This is the most effective way to teach Gmail to deliver my future messages to your Primary tab.

As an aside, it was great to get a solid response to my offer from a few emails ago, & I'm excited to jump on a call with the first 3 people that responded.

More and more every day, I think about strategy. As in, how am I going to do what I want to do?

The what is fantastic, but the how determines whether or not it will work. I'm stoked to help a few of you get tactical about your projects.

Here's to big things in 2016!